Reclaiming excess fees and car hire

family4tunes

Hi all,

I'm trying to find out if I am able in some way to reclaim my car insurance excess fees and courtesy car hire costs after a non-blameworthy accident.

Summary:

(1) I was hit by another car whom my insurance company found to be blameworthy
(2) I asked to have my car repaired at the main dealers instead of the insurance default repairers
(3) My insurance company stated if I had the main dealer do the repairs I would have to pay my excess fees and no courtesy car would be provided (normally no fee and curtesy given)
(4) The main dealer said they require a upgrade ins payment before they would provide a courtesy car
(5) There was no one injured in the accident

Question: My insurers will only deal with the damage repairs to the car nothing else. I did not have any legal cover even though my insurance is fully comprehensive. Is there a way to reclaim my expenses?

I wasn’t at fault and I don’t believe that I should have to burden these costs just because the third party was negligent.

Insurance company: Hastings
Main dealer: Vauxhall
Insurance type: Comprehensive

Thanks all.

Ectophile

Yes, but you have to claim your expenses off the other party. And you have to do it yourself because you didn't pay extra for legal cover.


Because you claimed off your insurance company, the policy excess applies. And you get what it says in the policy when it comes to repairs. So if the policy says you only get a courtesy car if you use their repairers, then that's what you get.

family4tunes

Hi Ectophile,

I appreciate your reply.

I fully understand that it is my choice to use the main dealer and so the costs incurred are a result from that. I had first thought legal cover was active on my policy, so up till the time of the claim I hadn't given it much thought, still again I understand this issue and it is my preference that has created my main question. I just needed to know if I could claim since my insurance policy cover does not entitle me to do so through them.

So, if indeed I can claim for costs against the third party, how would this be done, and what would I need to do?

forgotmyname

Start by writing to the 3rd partys insurer and detail your costs, provide evidence of your costs and cross your fingers they pay up promptly.

Dont expect costs where you chose a dearer option of taking it to your preferred garage, that was your choice. You should mitigate the costs of a claim, that could be seen as your choice and not essential for the repair.

If they fail to pay up then you take them to court for the costs, just keep it to proveable costs and not made up numbers where you round things up.

family4tunes

Hi forgotmyname,

I've no intention of upping the costs for profit etc, I just want to cover the outlay of what they might be.

My car is only just 6 months old so I wanted the main dealers to do the repairs rather than Joe Soap as they will fit all proper OEM parts and get the paint perfect. They also know the car inside out so they wont be struggle take things off to do the repairs or refit parts exactly as they should be again. If it was an older car I probably wouldn't mind and most likely gone through the insurance repairers.

All I am after is the costs of my excess and the extra fee payable to have a curtesy car from the main dealer whilst the car is repaired. All very much provable and affordable. I don't think its fair I should have to burden these costs as I didn't cause the RTC or create the damage to my car.

In fairness, the third party insurance should have to make good any costs their policy member created by driving badly. Having my repairs done at a main dealer is my choice and not something the third party insurers shouldn't be surprised when informed, nor should they be with the sundry costs I mentioned.

Having legal cover would have made this issue very easy to resolve, but as mentioned when I updated my policy after adding the new car it was overseen.

Thanks.